Diana, I got that message and didn't pay attention to it because I figured they'd tell me when it was put together and I didn't need to watch the birth pains. However, I did go to Myfamily.com and afterwards made the comments below to the Screven list lady and got the below answer which still doesn't tell me much except that Ancestry.com bought Rootsweb. No particular surprise there even if I didn't get the news. "Volunteer" subscriptions never stay afloat. Anyway, I have resisted giving Ancestry.com the 70 bucks a year not because I particularly begruded the 70 bucks but I have "accumulated" too much information already......what I need is some ORGANIZATION.....and of course only I can do that. Obviously, at some point I'll join and not be unhappy to do so but no point in digging my hole even deeper right now. Craig.....you stay up today on all this stuff....give us a "see Spot run" on it, would you? Thanks, Maynard Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 14:01:44 EDT From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Deborah, I apologize but I wasn't paying attention when you first announced the "merger" of two databases, presumably Rootsweb and Ancestry.com. I went to Myfamily.com and discovered that Ancestry.com is largely "fronting" the deal and one must join (pay) to access their combined data.....which was in part previously free on the Rootsweb site. Is this all there is to it or is there something I am missing here?  I have a feeling there is more to this. Thanks, John M. Poythress ______________________________ Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2001 19:57:17 -0600 From: "Deborah Byrd" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Ancestry bought out Rootsweb two years ago.  Without the merger Rootsweb.com would no longer exist.  Not enough users donated for their free services so Ancestry stepped in.  The merger allowed for free services to continue and to have a user pay portion also. The meger between Genconnect and The ancestry family history boards maintains the FREE USE of the boards.  You don't have DON'T have to pay to view or post to the Boards.  Ancestry requires that the user chose an id and password to give the user the ability to edit  their mailing address for board messages they posted and eventually to edit the messages that the user has posted. The apperance of needing to pay for the boards is an issue that we have raised.  However, Ancestry doesn't have an alternative way to proved the user the abilty to change addresses or edit previously posted messages. Broken Mail links was one of the major complaints with Genconnect. If anyone has anymore questions holler.  The system still is in flux, and they have found some glitches but expect them to be solved in the  next couple of weeks. Deborah Byrd P. S. (from MP)...it also strikes me that if all one can access is the posts to the query board and they haven't figured out a "discriminatory function" of some type you'll get every message in the world in your mail box if you "subscribe" even to the free list. That's not very appealing but SURELY they figured that one out.